Stevie Askew, a worker at Sea of Green Farms in Seattle, packs marijuana that will be available when pot sales begin Tuesday.

Photo: Ted S. Warren, Associated Press

Stevie Askew, a worker at Sea of Green Farms in Seattle, packs...

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Don Muridan, left, the owner of the Rainier on Pine recreational marijuana store in Tacoma, Wash., watches as workers move a scaffolding outside his store, Monday, July 7, 2014. The store was granted a license from the state Monday, but it won't be opening on Tuesday when legal sales begin due problems getting enough pot from growers and processors. Muridan says he is confident supplies will stabilize and that he will be open later in the month. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Washington state issued its first retail marijuana licenses Monday with a middle-of-the-night e-mail alerting bleary-eyed pot-shop proprietors that they'll finally be able to open for business.

"We're pretty stoked," said John Evich, an investor in Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis. "We haven't had any sleep in a long time, but we're excited for the next step."

Randy Simmons, the state Liquor Control Board's project manager for legal marijuana, said Sunday night that the first two dozen stores were being notified so early to give them an extra few hours to get cannabis on their shelves before they are allowed to open their doors at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The store openings are expected to be accompanied by high prices, shortages and celebration.

The state licensed 14 stores in western Washington and 10 in eastern Washington.

The issuance of the retail licenses marked a major step that's been 20 months in the making. Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot.

Sales began in Colorado on Jan. 1.

It remained unclear how many of the pot-shops being licensed in Washington planned to open on Tuesday. Officials eventually expect to have more than 300 recreational pot shops across the state.

At Cannabis City in Seattle, owner James Lathrop worked into the night Sunday placing no-parking signs in front of his building, hoisting a grand-opening banner and hanging artwork before he turned his attention to his e-mail - and the official notification that he was a licensed marijuana dealer.

"I've had a long day. It really hasn't sunk in yet," he said early Monday.

He planned to hold off on opening his store until noon on Tuesday.

"Know your audience: We're talking stoners here," he said. "I'd be mean to say they need to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line."

With the e-mailed notifications in hand, the shops immediately worked to place their orders with some of the state's first licensed growers.

Pot prices are expected to reach $25 a gram or higher on the first day of sales - twice what people pay in the state's unregulated medical marijuana dispensaries. That was largely due to the short supply of legally produced pot in the state. Although more than 2,600 people applied to become licensed growers, fewer than 100 have been approved - and only about a dozen were ready to harvest by early this month.